I should say right at the beginning that I’m supporting Hillary. I do so chiefly because I’ve believed that she has the best shot in the general election. But let’s imagine that Bernie does run the table and becomes the nominee. How will he perform in November?
The fact is, we don't know. It’s still too early for head-to-head general election polls to become meaningful and for most voters, Bernie is a complete unknown. How he is defined could be the difference in the election. Bernie has skeletons in his closet, as all politicians at his level do. What are they? Beats me. Sure, the GOP will try to paint him as a bright-red communist, but what they’ll use is still largely a mystery. And if there’s anything else, they’ll dig it up (and then twist the hell out of it).
I’d rather find out now than after he becomes the nominee. I think we all have a pretty decent idea what Hillary’s negatives are. We’re able to weigh them against her positive attributes and get a rough sense how it will all play out in the general. This is a good thing. And it’s why I think someone (her campaign, a super pac or the media) needs to bring his dirt out.
I was an Obama supporter in 2008. As the primaries got rolling, I chose him as a candidate as a leap of faith. Despite his national profile from his 2004 convention speech and his two books, he was still pretty unknown (although much better known than Bernie). When Rev. Wright came out, it looked like a campaign killer. America was not going to elect an angry black man. But Obama handled it and with his speech on race, almost turned it into a positive. He showed resilience and a political touch that helped people to see him as an actual president. Most important was that this didn’t come out in Sept or Oct, when he’d have less ability to neutralize the threat.
You can look at Bill Clinton, too, for an example of this. Going into New Hampshire he was a philanderer and a draft dodger. He survived and won the election. On the flip side is Dukakis and Willie Horton. Yes, Al Gore brought up the controversial furlough program, but it never went beyond that. No one bothered to see how bad it could look and we all know how that turned out. Would hearing about Horton during the primary have cost Dukakis the nomination? Who knows. But if primary voters still voted for him, at least they would’ve done so with open eyes.
There is no need to go scorched earth on Bernie. That would be counterproductive. But if there’s something truly damaging out there (be it a specific big thing or many small ones that together seem damning), Democrats need to know. This wasn’t necessary when Bernie was essentially a protest candidate. But with the nomination a real possibility, the time to start the real vetting is now.
